Monday, June 20, 2016

Does Netflix’s entry into the
Indian Market spell disaster for the Indian Blockbuster business?

SHREYA SINGH
NMIMS MUMBAI

Frank Underwood’s ruthless cold demeanor, Narcos’ hypnotic
theme song Tuyo, Badass Detective Jessica Jones, Netflix, with its diverse globalized
content will make it all available to Indian viewers without us resorting to
torrents and proxies. Not only that, it will put India on the global map of
over the top (OTT) and content distribution market forging better telecom
infrastructure. Talk about killing two birds with one stone!

Netflix’s stronghold lies in its ability to create original
content and India has been promised local stories to cater to the eclectic
taste of watchers. Its subscription only business model ensures that ads don’t
pop up when you are engrossed in a show. Content devoid of censorship, dynamic
library with constant addition of content, suggestions based on mood by
creating multiple profiles provide an extra ‘oomph’ to the popularity of
Netflix as well as a reason for the Indian Blockbuster Business to hit the
panic button.

The rickety infrastructure in India does pose a threat to
Netflix’s grandiose schemes. Netflix, however, uses clever algorithms that
predict the drop in the connection speed and accordingly changes the streaming
quality so that the episode runs for as long as possible. Data usage settings
as Low (0.3GB/hr), Medium (0.7GB/hr), High (3GB/hr for HD and 7 GB/hr for Ultra
HD) and Auto provide a judicious data cap and the monthly subscription rates
have been designed keeping the niche market of Independent Cinema lovers and
English TV show binge watchers in mind and therefore rates starting from Rs.
500 are not bothersome. Henceforth, the offerings Netflix provides are enough
to create a gradual shift in the blockbuster business.

With such a vast array of video on demand
available on the interface of your choice, anytime, anywhere, why would any TV
series aficionado want to go anywhere else?

ABIR NANDI
IIM SHILLONG

Netflix has
arrived from the western shores, armed with a catalogue of movies and shows,
and is looking to cash in on the demand for high-quality content among the
Indians with a proclivity for premium entertainment services. Most of these
would be young, working and with money to spare. Even if we ignore, for now,
their penchant for “taking to the high seas”, a habit they would have picked up
in their college days or earlier, we have to take note that they form a
minuscule minority of the movie-going public in India. Even if these people
decide to replace their visits to the multiplexes with “Netflix and Chill”,
they would barely make a dent to the box-office numbers of our “Bollywood
Blockbusters”.

The
much-maligned “Bollywood Blockbuster” is the love-child of the masses’ nigh
unquenchable thirst for entertainment and the Indian film industry’s stubborn
knack of sticking to the proven formula. Their consumers come from diverse
places of origin and social strata- be it the 30 year old auto-rickshaw driver
looking to end the week with light-hearted entertainment or the 18 year old
engineering student indulging in a guilty pleasure. The Chennai Expresses and the Happy
New Years of India are here to stay, bolstered by the 13000 odd single
screen theatres in India that cater to the “Big Billion”, the 1500 odd
multiplexes notwithstanding.

Unless
Netflix acquires rights to or decides to produce local content with
mass-appeal, Bollywood would not be bothered about it. Even if Netflix does
come out with such content in the future, the design of the service itself
would restrict it to those with access to computer screens. It can thus be
safely said that Netflix will fit into a very distinct niche of the
entertainment market without causing the Bollywood honchos too much headache.

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Launched in April 2009, Markathon is the monthly Marketing magazine released by the Marketing Club of IIM Shillong and was the brainchild of Asit Jain, Saurav Bagchi, Dilpreet Singh, Ritul Singh, Pranab Talukdar & Soumyasanta Roy. The current office bearers are Ashok A, Kamalpreet Saluja, Pallavi, Prateek Gaurav, Shashank Singh Tomar, Sushree Tripathy, Swikruti Panda and Vaibhav Annam. This is the first monthly B-School marketing magazine which is circulated in over 50 B-Schools in India and abroad and has a reader base of over 5000. Made available in a free-to-distribute electronic format, it includes articles which cover a plethora of marketing topics and also has an ad designing competition. Markathon aims to deconstruct marketing jargons to make the subject more accessible to students. Interviews of corporate and academic stalwarts is a regular feature. The issues are characterized by rich images, detailed styling and the cover pages are especially remarkable and lend identity to the whole issue.